Judaea-Palaestina, Babylon and Rome: Jews in Antiquity

335 Pages·2012·4.71 MB·English

by  Benjamin Isaac

Texts and Studies in Ancient Judaism
Texte und Studien zum Antiken Judentum
Edited by
Peter Schäfer (Princeton, NJ)
Annette Y. Reed (Philadelphia, PA)
Seth Schwartz (New York, NY)
Azzan Yadin (New Brunswick, NJ)
147

Judaea-Palaestina,
Babylon and Rome:
Jews in Antiquity
edited by
Benjamin Isaac and Yuval Shahar
Mohr Siebeck
Benjamin Isaac, born 1945; immigrated to Israel in 1972; studied in Amsterdam, the Nether-
lands; currently Fred and Helen Lessing Professor of Ancient History, Tel Aviv University;
member of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities; Israel Prize Laureate.
Yuval Shahar, born 1953; studied Jewish History and Jewish Philosophy at Tel Aviv University;
currently Senior Lecturer in the Department of Jewish History and Head of The Multidisci-
plinary Program in the Humanities, Tel Aviv University.
eISBN 978-3-16-152025-9
ISBN 978-3-16-151697-9
ISSN 0721-8753 (Texts and Studies in Ancient Judaism)
Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliographie;
detailed bibliographic data is available on the Internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de.
© 2012 by Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, Germany.
This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, in any form (beyond that permitted by
copyright law) without the publisher’s written permission. This applies particularly to repro-
ductions, translations, microfilms and storage and processing in electronic systems.
The book was typeset by Martin Fischer in Tübingen using Times typeface, printed by Gulde-
Druck in Tübingen on non-aging paper and bound by Buchbinderei Spinner in Ottersweier.
Printed in Germany.
Preface
In December of 2009 Tel Aviv University hosted an international conference in
honour of Aharon Oppenheimer, Sir Isaac Wolfson Professor of Jewish History,
on the occasion of his retirement. The present volume publishes most of the
papers read during the conference and it is dedicated to him by his friends and
colleagues in recognition of many years of a broad range of activities: teaching,
research, and administration, all of them carried out with wisdom, unselfishly
and honestly.
The editors wish to thank those who made the event possible, those who
participated in it and those who worked hard to make it a success. First, we
gratefully acknowledge the generous financial contributions made by various
persons and institutions: the President of Tel Aviv University, the Rector, Vice-
President for Research and Development, the Dean of the Faculty of Humanities,
the School of Jewish Studies, the Goldstein-Goren Center for Diaspora Research
and its Director, Dr Simha Goldin, the Fred Lessing Institute for European His-
tory and Civilization and Ms Joan Lessing, and the Mortimer and Raymond
Sackler Institute of Advanced Studies.
Special mention should be made of invaluable assistance rendered by Sara
Appel and Ora Azta of the Goldstein-Goren Center who took care of all practical
arrangements in preparing the event. Their labours were instrumental in achiev-
ing a conference virtually without practical flaws.
Susan Weingarten helped improving the style of part of the contributions. We
are very grateful for her generous assistance. Finally, cordial thanks are due to
Nili Oppenheimer for the preparation of the list of Aharon Oppenheimer’s pub-
lications at the end of this book.
Benjamin Isaac & Yuval Shahar Tel Aviv University, September 2011

Table of Contents
Benjamin Isaac and Yuval Shahar
Introduction ................................................. 1
The Image of Jews among Non-Jews
Albert I. Baumgarten
The “Outreach” Campaign of the Ancient Pharisees:
There is no such thing as a Free Lunch ............................ 11
Shaye J. D. Cohen
Dancing, Clapping, Meditating: Jewish and Christian Observance
of the Sabbath in Pseudo-Ignatius ............................... 29
The Image of Non-Jews among Jews
Joshua Schwartz
How Jewish to be Jewish? Self-Identity and Jewish Christians
in First Century CE Palestine ................................... 55
Günter Stemberger
Birkat ha-minim and the separation of Christians and Jews ............ 75
Vered Noam
Another look at the rabbinic conception of gentiles
from the perspective of impurity laws ............................ 89
Richard Kalmin
The Evil Eye in Rabbinic Literature of Late Antiquity ................ 111
Peter Schäfer
Jesus’ Origin, Birth, and Childhood according to the Toledot Yeshu
and the Talmud .............................................. 139
VIII Table of Contents
Social History
Tessa Rajak
Reflections on Jewish Resistance and the Discourse of Martyrdom
in Josephus ................................................. 165
Martin Goodman
Titus, Berenice and Agrippa: The Last Days of the Temple in Jerusalem 181
Yuval Shahar
Why a quarter? The Siqariqon ruling and Roman Law ............... 191
Susan Weingarten
How do you say haroset in Greek? ............................... 205
Jonathan J. Price
The Necropolis at Jaffa and its Relation to Beth She‘arim ............. 215
Youval Rotman
Captives and Redeeming Captives: the Law and the Community ....... 227
Werner Eck
The Jewish Community in Cologne from Roman Times
to the Early Middle Age ....................................... 249
Issues in Modern Scholarship
David Goodblatt
The Jews in the Parthian Empire: What We Don’t Know .............. 263
Yoram Tsafrir
The Finds in Cave 2001–2002 and Burial at Masada ................. 279
Isaiah Gafni
Will the ‘Real’ Rabbis Please Stand Up: On the Repackaging of the
Rabbinic Model in Modern Times ............................... 295
Table of Contents IX
Publications of Aharon Oppenheimer ............................. 309
Index ...................................................... 317
Ancient writers ............................................ 317
Modern scholars ........................................... 318
General Index ............................................. 320